Woman guilty of locking up 4-year-old child

Aug. 30, 2013

Jamie Curnell / Jess Lanning/Eagle-Gazette

Written by

Francesca Sacco

The Eagle-Gazette Staff

Jamie Curnell, left, looks over paperwork with her attorney, Kristen Burkett, Thursday in Fairfield County Common Pleas Court. Curnell pleaded guilty to three counts of child endangerment, all felonies of the third degree. / Jess Lanning/Eagle-Gazette

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LANCASTER — A Pleasantville woman pleaded guilty to locking her 4-year-old child in a bed wrapped in steel mesh and equipped with a sliding latch.

Last July, Curnell and her co-defendant, Russell D. Terry, 34, of Pleasantville, each were charged with 10 counts of abduction, all third-degree felonies; 10 counts of kidnapping, all first-degree felonies; and 10 counts of endangering children, all third degree felonies.

As a part of a plea agreement, the remaining charges were dismissed.

Last week, Terry also pleaded guilty to three counts of child endangering, third-degree felonies.

Fairfield County sheriff’s deputies found the enclosure when they responded to a domestic violence call July 10, 2012, at a home on the 8000 block of Lancaster-Thornville Road.

Deputies said the child was kept locked in the bottom bed of the bunk bed because she would get up during the night. Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen said the parents told deputies they had kept the child in the enclosure during the night for the past three months.

Phalen said the house was “filthy” and the mattress was bare. The child was not in the bed when deputies arrived.

Melissa Schiffel, chief assistant prosecuting attorney for the Fairfield County Prosecutor’s Office, said the prosecution is asking for a total sentence of 61⁄2 years. Schiffel said five years of the sentence would be suspended for community control. The prosecution was not against judicial release after 45 days in prison had been served, Schiffel said.

Separate sentencing hearings were requested for Curnell and Terry. Schiffel said she thinks the couple will be sentenced at the same time. A sentencing date has not been set.